An illustration of solar-powered levitating discs Schafer et al. Nature Fingernail-size discs that levitate in sunlight could someday carry sensors through some of the thinnest and coldest reaches of the atmosphere. By flying higher than commercial aircraft or weather balloons can, such swarms could reveal new insights about Earth’s changing weather and climate patterns. The…
The workings of our solar system are roughly the same now as they have been for millions of years. Moons circle their planets, the planets circle the sun, the sun’s magnetic fields and sunspots wax and wane. On the scale of a human life, nothing much seems to happen. But on a cosmic timescale, our…
Microfluidics makes it possible for devices like this chip to simulate biological organs WLADIMIR BULGAR/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY How the World Flows(Albert Folch, Oxford University Press, on sale now) What do rainbows, inkjet printers, human skin, pregnancy tests and fish gills have in common? To answer this question, we must travel to what Albert Folch, a bioengineering…
Wellcome Collection A man gazes at the water level in a well in Morocco as the dunes of the Sahara desert extend to the horizon in the main image shown above, taken by M’hammed Kilito. The stark shot is part of the photographer’s ongoing project entitled Before It’s Gone, which documents the degradation of Morocco’s…
Psychiatrist Rami Kaminski says he has observed a previously unrecognised personality type – the “otrovert”. Here is what he thinks these people can teach us
A solar future for this Sichuan pepper field in Bijie, China STR/AFP via Getty Images Here Comes the Sun(Bill McKibben W. W. Norton, UK, 16 September; US, 19 August) The sun is rising on solar power. According to Ember, an energy think tank, solar energy has been the world’s fastest growing source of electricity for the past 20 years,…
Feedback is New Scientist’s popular sideways look at the latest science and technology news. You can submit items you believe may amuse readers to Feedback by emailing feedback@newscientist.com And inhale… If you want to succeed in science, it helps to have good ideas, to be good at experiments, and so forth. But what you really…
Alistair Berg/Getty Images One of the more depressing prospects of old age is years of poor health towards the end. The familiar story is that, while people are living longer, our healthspans haven’t risen to the same extent, meaning those who reach old age experience more years of illness. It is heartening, then, that a…
“Inside the wood of each tree on Earth are vast numbers of microorganisms, many of them new to science” Shutterstock/Emvat Mosakovskis A couple of years ago, I spent an enjoyable afternoon in an ancient forest near London learning about old trees and their vital importance to biodiversity. My host, Cardiff University mycologist Lynne Boddy, told…
The herpes virus can help treat severe skin cancer Science Photo Library/Alamy Viruses have shown huge potential in treating various kinds of cancer, but the immune response has limited their application to tumours near the body’s surface. Now, scientists have demonstrated that shielding viruses with genetically engineered bacteria bypasses this issue, slowing the growth of…
